Gingerbread House With Mom! (Gingerbread Men with Mom AND DAD!)

While Dad was at work, Mom and I continued the tradition of making a gingerbread house!

Mom rolled out the dough, and shaped it into walls and a roof, and we both put it together using icing to hold it together. Using icing as cement is delicious.

We used a variety of candies to decorate the house. As Mom and I both love patterns, there was a lot of patterning going on here...do you see it!?

I also convinced Mom that every house should have a smiley face on the roof. She misunderstood me and thought that the Mike n' Ikes and Dots were going to serve as the teeth for the smile, but I wanted an actual icing smile. So, she was able to adjust things so they looked just how we wanted them to!

We also added hearts to the roof (One for me, one for Mom, and one for Dad!)

There was a Christmas tree on the side of the house, with an M&M tree topper (Which must be way more delicious than a star, right?)

We finished it off with a star, and a little door (How else would one get in and out?) with an M&M as a doorknob. Those M&Ms are pretty versatile.

A few days later, we used the leftover dough to make some gingerbread men!

Once again, Mom used the roller to flatten out the dough, and she handed me a little gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter.

I pressed it down nice and hard, wiggled the cutter a bit, and then we peeled off the leftover pieces.

I added eyes and nose (Also with the ever present M&Ms....have I mentioned that they are delicious, as well as being a reliable decorative tool) We popped the little guys into the oven, baked them and VOILA!

Gingerbread men!

I decorated one of the gingerbread men with frosting, and ate him right up!

He was totally delicious....easily one of the best tasting treat of this delicious holiday season!

Mom said "Alright, Miley Cyrus" when I kept sticking my tongue out...what does that mean?!

Holiday Decorating 2013

This year, it seems like we have even more decorations than usual! Gramma Mindy got us an advent calendar so we can count down the days until Christmas. The calendar comes in the form of a large book-shaped case that contains 24 smaller books. You pull out one per day, and then read from the little books to learn the story of the birth of Jesus. The little books also double as Christmas tree ornaments. Very cool.

Mom and Dad also got a Playmobil advent calendar on sale at the end of Christmas last year, so I get to open them this year! Each little door opens to reveal a Playmobil toy. You put them all together to create a little woodland scene. There are lots of animals, trees, food for the animals, and of course Santa Claus and an angel (which are two of my favorites!)

When we went to get Gramma Mindy's Christmas tree, we also picked out a nice wreath for our apartment door! I picked it out, because I loved the color so much. One of the bulbs had fallen off, so I made sure to tell the lady that had rung us out that I was a better bulb gluer than anyone else. I'm sure she appreciated that.

We arrived home and Dad and I hung the wreath on our door (after we fixed the bulb, of course) He got the little stool out so I could help him lift it up to position it in just the right spot.

I think that with the color scheme of our building, and the general beauty of the wreath, it all looks really nice, wouldn't you say?

We went out to get a Christmas tree at our usual lot, and Mom and I got to put the lights on it when we got home! We worked very carefully to make sure they all fit, and were spaced out nicely.

Over the course of the last few weeks, we put a bunch of ornaments on the tree, some we had been given as gifts, some we had bought when we went to visit cool places like the National Aquarium, or Mount Vernon (Which Dad went to on his own) or Hawaii (which Mom went to on her own)

We also put lots of jelly decorations up on our glass entertainment center doors, cutout snow men, and other Christmas figures throughout the apartment. It all ended up looking very festive!

Sledding with the big kids!!

Well...it's nothing like the snow my family up North gets, but we did get enough snow to play in last weekend, so I was CERTAINLY going to take advantage of it!

 I got all dressed up in my warm winter wear, and went outside to play with Dad for awhile. I made snow angels, dug in the snow with my shovel, had a few snowball fights, and generally had a great time out in the snow!

I went ahead and dipped my hands into a slush puddle, so Dad had to take me inside to change them...on the way in, a nice guy with his even nice kid walked by and said they were going sledding, and wanted to know if I wanted to come...DID I EVER!? Technically, Gramma Debbie had helped me enjoy my first sledding experience in Connecticut, which I LOVED...but this was my first time heading to a big hill!

We went inside to change gloves, and then joined them over at the high school across the street, where there was a great hill to sled down. The kids were really nice and let me borrow one of their sleds...I was hesitant at first, but then went down a small hill once with Dad...after that I upgraded IMMEDIATELY to the big hill by myself!

I went down a BUNCH of times! Dad helped me bring the sled up to the top of the slippery hill, and I kept going down again!

It was really great, and I was having SO much fun sledding with the other kids while Dad watched...

Out of nowhere, an impromptu snowball fight started, and not only did I hold my own with the older kids, but I got a few good hits in there myself! They were so great to have included me in their games, and also to not be too rough with the little guy...I think they softened some of those snowball throws for me, but they didn't go too easy on me...I got hit plenty! And it was AWESOME!

(I'm the little guy on the right, by the way)

We just ran around until the sun crept down below the horizon, and it started getting too dark (and cold) to keep playing...so we got ready to head in...

But not before I got a few more good throws in! In this cynical world, I love that we just met a couple random people from my building, who shared their sled with us, and let me play with them. It made me feel like the best combination of being a little kid, but kind of a big kid as well! There are still great people out there!

And there are definitely great snowball fights to be had!

Christmas Trolley Ride 2013

We tried something different and fun this year...Aunt Mallory and Uncle Mat had a Groupon to visit the East Haven Trolley Museum, where they were doing a special event for the holidays!

A real olde Tyme trolley pulled up, and we all got to get on it! We had perfect timing, as we got our tickets right as the next one was leaving. I hadn't seen hot chocolate yet, but was told that there was hot chocolate on the premises.

Onboard the trolley, we all got comfy, and got ready to enjoy the trip back in time through the woods of East Haven Connecticut. The tracks were embedded in the road, and the wire ran overhead, just like they did back in the day. The back of the seats slid forward and back so you could face the way the trolley was moving which was really cool.

The trolley was decorated for the holidays, which was really nice (but no hot chocolate yet)

And featured not only ads from yesteryear...

...but a conductor that was literally plucked from the past! Look at this guy! He was amazing!

We had some time to be silly on the trolley as we drove back to the little winter wonderland that they had set up for us...

When we got to the other side of the trolley yard, we saw that all the trolleys that they had were decorated for the holidays, both outside...

...and inside!

This little penguin guy was great! He welcome us to one of the trolleys...

...which was filled with an amazing train set! (But no hot chocolate)

There were three trains running on several tracks, and of course one had a Thomas engine at the front!

There was even a pre-determined place where the train was designed to take a break at a station, which was really cool to watch!

Ha! Finally! Jackpot! Not only was there hot chocolate, but there was cookies too! Score!!

We ended up at the final train that had Santa waiting for us.

He and I had a nice conversation before all the other kids found him, and I told him I wanted a robot that gave out cookies and said "Cookie Party! Cookie Party!" This toy doesn't exist or anything like that, I just figured that since it was something that seemed interesting to me in my brain (after I made it up) that I should be able to get one. Totally reasonable, right?

Santa was pretty sly in looking at the camera during a moment where I was both standing up and also standing relatively still.It was a nice visit!

Uncle Mat helped me drive one of the trolleys (or pretend to)

and Aunt Mallory and Gramma Mindy made a nice audience for when Monkey and I were feeling particularly silly.

It was finally time to hop on the trolley and ride it back into 2013...where we ended up at the museum part of the evening!

Mom and I looked at some different exhibits including one where you pulled a cord to simulate taking someone's fare for the trolley...it switched the big numbers in the display case!

And also turning a crank to generate electricity! A little lightbulb lit up...

...and a tiny trolley moved down the tracks...

We finished up the evening relaxing on the couch while I played some iPod games...it was truly a lovely little family outing. Thanks Aunt Mallory and Uncle Mat for taking us!

Getting a Christmas Tree with the Pellegrinos 2013!

It was a busy weekend in Connecticut for Thanksgiving this year! As always, we did a lot of driving (my poor Mom had such a long drive on the way there!) and got to have Thanksgiving dinner at both of my Grammas houses....we spent so much time eating and hanging out with family, that I didn't get any pics, but know that it was a blast!

The day after Thanksgiving saw us heading out to the Christmas Tree Farm just like we did last year. This year, it was Uncle Mat, Aunt Mallory, Mom, Dad and Gramma Mindy that went out to the Farm! 

As is tradition, we played a lot of hide and seek....first Mom and I ran off for Dad to find us...

Yeah...that's right....you can't even see me!!

Then, Aunt Mallory joined my team, and we did some running around and hiding in the rows and rows of trees!

Finally it was time for us to pick a tree, and everyone found one that we all really liked for Gramma Mindy's house. I came and gave the final thumbs up, and it was up to Uncle Mat to get the cutting started!

I kept an eye on the proceedings, and he did a great job.

Aunt Mallory got in there for a little while to help with cutting the tree down, and I not only encouraged her, but offered tips on the best way to saw the tree down.

Finally, she swapped off with Uncle Mat again, and with Dad's help, we got the tree down!

Once the tree was down, I helped Dad trim the bottom so that it would fit perfectly in Gramma Mindy's house!

Of course, any farm worth its salt had something for kids to do, and this one had a little playground!

I got to go on the slide, and climb the climbing wall for a little while, while we were getting ready to checkout, and while Gramma Mindy bought her Christmas tree!

The Pellegrino-Grants also got themselves a wreath to take back to Maryland with them, and I made sure to tell the person who checked us out at the register that a bulb had fallen off the wreath, and that I picked it even with this slight deficiency in craftsmanship...I also made sure to tell her what a better gluer of bulbs I was than them...

The guys at the farm tied Gramma Mindy's tree to the top of Uncle Mat and Aunt Mallory's car so we could take it back to the house and put it up!